News Elite 10

CHATHAM-KENT, Ont. — Team Jamie Sinclair is on the board and still in contention at the Princess Auto Elite 10.

The reigning Players’ champions scored a 2-Up victory over Team Nina Roth during an all-American battle in the sixth draw of round-robin play Friday morning at Thames Campus Arena.

Sinclair was already up by a point with the hammer coming home in eight and didn’t need to throw her last as Roth, who represented the U.S. at the Winter Olympics, was unable to grab shot rock with her final throw.

Team Sinclair, who are the double defending U.S. champions, improved to a 1-0-0-2 record (three points), matching Roth’s record, with one round-robin game remaining in the late afternoon draw against Team Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta.

Princess Auto Elite 10: Scores & Standings | Draw Schedule | TV Schedule

Elsewhere, Winnipeg’s Team Tracy Fleury edged Team Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland in a shootout. Fleury (0-1-1-0) now holds three points with Tirinzoni (1-0-1-0) just ahead at four.

Team Laura Walker stole the eighth end to clip Team Chelsea Carey 1-Up in an all-Edmonton club matchup. Walker (1-1-0-0) climbed into third place in the standings with five points while Carey finished round-robin play with three points (1-0-0-3).

In men’s play, Team Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., has advanced to the playoffs following a 3-and-1 victory over Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat. Howard (3-0-0-1) qualifies with nine points and sits at the top of the men’s leaderboard currently. Mouat dropped to a 1-0-0-2 record (three points).

Team Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., got their first win stealing back-to-back points in the fifth and sixth ends to defeat Scotland’s Team Ross Paterson 3-and-2. Both Jacobs and Paterson hold 1-0-0-2 records and three points each.

Match play rules are in effect at the season-opening Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event where teams compete to win the most ends per game. Points are scored by either counting two or more rocks (with the hammer) or stealing at least one rock (without the hammer). If the game is all-square after eight ends, a draw-to-the-button shootout will determine the winner.

The Princess Auto Elite 10 features three additional unique rules: Stopwatches are banned, tick shots cannot be performed on guards sitting on the centre line until the sixth rock of play, and teams have four minutes of thinking time per end.

Teams earn three points for a regulation win, two points for a shootout win, one point for a shootout loss and zero points for a regulation loss. The top six teams overall, regardless of pools, qualify for the weekend playoffs with the top two seeds receiving byes directly to the semifinals.

Round-robin action continues at Noon ET with broacast coverage on Sportsnet and online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and gsoc.yaretv.com (international).

NOTES: Winners of the Princess Auto Elite 10 earn $24,000 of the $200,000 prize purse plus berths to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup taking place April 23-28 in Saskatoon. … Points are also on the line for the Pinty’s Cup, which is awarded to the season champions in the series with a $75,000 bonus for the winners.